With the increasing awareness of the long term problems which must be solved in view of the finite nature of conventional energy sources such as petroleum, there has been much attention focused on so-called alternative energy sources, such as solar energy. Although many solar heat collecting systems have been developed and substantial improvements have been made, no prior art solar heat collecting system provides the efficiency, cost effectiveness and versatility of the present invention, particularly in the area of home heating use.
A number of solar heat collecting systems use lenses to collect and focus the rays of the sun onto a heat collecting surface. Some examples of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,981,295 (Minnick); 4,029,077 (Gorniak); 4,057,048 (Maine); 4,134,393 (Stark et al); and 4,136,670 (Davis). The Maine and Davis patents both disclose solar heat collectors utilizing a hemispheric array of lenses, the focal lengths of the lenses being chosen so as to focus the radiant energy from the sun onto a collecting surface such as a shallow ray of water or a collector dish. A number of other solar heat collecting surfaces or bodies have been used including metallic foils (see, for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,703 to Tabor). Further, many prior art systems provide for circulating a heating collecting fluid such as water in contact with the heat collecting surface to provide for transfer of the collected heat (see, for example, the Stark et al, Tabor, Minnick and Gorniak patents referred to above). Although the various systems disclosed in these patents possess certain advantages, these systems generally suffer the common disadvantages of the prior art with respect to factors such as efficiency, cost, cost effectiveness and versatility.